Six burning questions for Miriam Margolyes

Natalie Craig

Miriam Margolyes: "Nothing I do is embarrassing, except to other people."

1. Your one-woman stage show, Dickens' Women, is set to start in Melbourne. What role does Dickens play in your life?

Since I first read Oliver Twist when I was 11, Mr Dickens has played a vital role in my imaginative and psychological development. And then he became supreme in a professional sense, as Dickens' Women has proved an enduring crowd-pleaser since it was first performed in 1989 at the Edinburgh Festival. No other writer has ever usurped his place in my heart. I am always reading him (now re-reading Great Expectations) and I always discover new delights every time. I judge him harshly when I think of his treatment of his wife, but the majesty of his prose delights me and I find him such a complex, puzzling figure that the story of his life absorbs me.

2. What's your favourite line from a Dickens character?

It's from Mrs Gamp, ''who had a face for all occasions'', in Martin Chuzzlewit, chapter 19: '' 'Mrs Harris,' I says, 'leave the bottle on the chimley-piece and don't ask me to take none but let me put my lips to it when I am so dispoged and then I will do what I'm engaged to do, according to the best of my ability.''' This shows Dickens' cleverness with dialogue - writing the letter 'g' instead of 's' shows you how drunk Mrs Gamp is, and the self-righteous remark reveals the hypocritical nature of this amazing comic creation.

3. You own a house in country New South Wales with your Australian partner, are an Australian resident and live here part-time. What's the best and worst part about living here?

I hope to become an Australian citizen very soon. The best part of living in Australia is being in such a beautiful, peaceful place and seeing birds and animals in their own habitat. The worst part is that I'm not there enough … and the heating bills!

Advertisement

4. Who was your first love?

My preparatory schoolteacher, Miss Chase. I was three years old. It was never consummated.

In my headmistress' study in 1959, [when I] heard from her that I had won an Exhibition [scholarship] to Newnham College, Cambridge. I knew then that … I would make new friends, learn amazing things, travel and become a person. And I did.

Miriam Margolyes performs Dickens' Women at the Arts Centre from February 28 to March 3. She is also appearing as Aunt Prudence in ABC TV's new drama, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.